Christian is tucked away in the far reaches of East County, the last “metro” freeway stop along interstate 8 freeway. Many around the section may not be paying much attention to the football team or athletic program. But the small private Christian school with 388 students continues to prove that they can win against larger private schools and even the bigger public schools.

San Marcos came into the D3 championship game behind an enrollment of 2,274 students, the fifth biggest enrollment for what would be D2 football if the divisions were still by enrollment.

But Christian was concerned with just one San Marcos Knight among the 2,274 students, senior Isiah Hennie ’14. As Patriot defensive coordinator Mike Mitchell put it, “Isiah Hennie is an awfully good football player so our goal was to not let him beat us and make the rest of their team beat us.”

The Patriots jumped out to a 19-0 lead and kept San Marcos to a single touchdown by Isiah Hennie on a two-yard QB keeper for the 19-7 win.

One big factor in the win over San Marcos was turnovers, seven turnovers forced by Christian. The Patriots worked all year with stripping the ball and twice was able to change the possession with some extra hands work.

Christian captain Sebastian Swift ’14 explained that “our big word this week was effort and we were just going to execute as much as we could.”